Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Damages Caused By The Super Storm [SLIDESHOW]
First responders rescued stranded New Jersey residents from their flooded neighborhoods, workers pumped water from swamped Manhattan tunnels and many East Coast residents dug through the wreckage of their houses to find their loved ones after "Super storm" Sandy shook up the Northeast.
Keith Paul, a restaurant owner in New Jersey, told CNN that he has lived in Toms River for 39 years.
"I've been through several hurricanes, going back to Gloria," Paul said, referring to the 1985 storm. "And I've never seen anything like this at all."
Sandy hit locations close to Atlantic City, N.J., around Sunday night, whipping up a storm surge that tore up the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore and shut down subway and highway tunnels in New York.
CNN confirmed that the death toll in the U.S. rose to at least 50 around the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina to Connecticut, and even Canada, officials said early Wednesday.
"I never thought I'd see what I saw today," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told reporters, after spending the day reviewing the damages caused by the hybrid storm to this state.
Recovery efforts began ate Sunday, early Monday.
CNN confrimed on Wednesday that the number of electric customers without power fell to just under 6.9 million across 15 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia, down from the nearly 8 million reported earlier in the day.
Two of New York's major airports, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty, were said to re-open Wednesday with limited service.
According to CNN, thousands of people waited in shelters, not knowing whether their homes had survived. Salt water took over the concrete canyons of lower Manhattan as utility workers pumped it out in an attempt to get the system up and running again.
In Breezy Point, N.Y., many lost their homes, as the storm washed up houses within hours. Mike Long, a Breezy Point resident, told CNN, "In all honesty, it looks like a war zone."
"It looks like during the night, that fighter planes or bombers came through and just bombed the entire area. It just looks terrible," Long said. "There's poles down, there's trees down across wires with transformers blowing up on the street. You go out and walk around, its dangerous, because if you hit a puddle and its got electricity-- there's really not much you can do until things get cleaned up a little bit."
According to Christie, about 1,000 people were rescued Tuesday, as hazards lurked in the dark and water swirled and lingered across much of the region.
The complete damage of Sandy's wrath has yet to be determined but government officials predict that wind damages could alone cost more than $7 billion. The storm's economic impact is expected to rack up to $25 billion.
President Barack Obama signed a major disaster declaration for New Jersey and New York on Tuesday, giving federal aid to residents, state and local authorities.
